17 years?! Where did the time go?

Joel and I celebrated our 17th Anniversary this weekend. It was so crazy. Joel had parent weekend at his school which means a lot of the parents come to visit and that he has to work all day and night. They have parent once a quarter and we go serve dinner to the parents and kids at the school. We do it every time and I don't mind doing it but this weekend I wanted to do something for our Anniversary. I also was substituting at Tuacahn High School for Jan and Andy because they were at a convention in Cali. I was busy and we hadn't seen much of each other the entire week so, Friday Joel brought me 2 dozen roses to the High School. Joel hardly ever gets me flowers so this was a big deal. I was excited that I got roses since dinner was going to be with 300 strangers. Usually his gift to me is dinner.

For my gift to Joel I had planned, with Joel's friends, to have them kidnap him in the middle of the night and take him to Phoenix to see the Cardinals /49er's football game for our anniversary. He NEVER gets to do anything for himself so I thought he'd like it. His friends where sooo excited it was funny. I was supposed to wake him up and tell him that I forgot to give him my present and give him a Cardinals t-shirt and have him put it on and go get in the car with the guys. But, Joel decided to plan a surprise of his own.

Saturday morning he got up at 6am and went to work. I went to Walmart at 10 and Shayne called me in a panic. "Dad just came home and said that I had to tend until tomorrow because he was taking you away for the night!" CRAP! She knew about my plan and knew that this was going to ruin it. So, I hurried and called his friend and asked what was up. Tallon said that without ruining either surprise I had to just trust him that everything would work out and to call him later on after I had my surprise. So, I went home and Joel said "get packed we're leaving." CRAP! So after we went and ran some errands and he drove up to Abby Inn. He had gotten us a room and we went and served dinner at his school and went to a movie. It was really nice to not have to go home and deal with kids and stuff. He had put a lot of thought into making this a good anniversary instead of the service project that I thought it was going to be.

Later, I called Tallon and he said that they'd just pick Joel up at the hotel. Which was fine but I had 5 presents at home that I was sending with them for our adopted son Eric, who is away at college in Phoenix, that I somehow needed to go home and get without Joel knowing. So, at 2am I got up, snuck out and drove home, got the presents, some different clothes for Joel and came back. At 3:30 I called the guys and the said they were 20 minutes away so I woke Joel up and gave him his shirt and he wasn't quite awake but when he finally realized what was going on he hurried and got ready. We went downstairs and out the front of the hotel right as they were pulling up. I put the presents in the back and he got in and they left.

It was PERFECT!!! But the Cardinals lost. But it was an amazing anniversary!!!

I am so lucky to have Joel forever. He is unbelievably kind and humble (opposites attract). Not to mention gorgeous! Thank you Joel for 17 wonderful years! It'll be fun to see what the next 17 bring.

Back 2 School

The kids all went back to school on August 13th. Shayne is now a Sophomore and is going to Pine View High School. Sophie is in 6th grade and goes to Fossil Ridge Intermediate School. Josh is in 4th and goes to Washington Elementary and Ben goes with Josh every morning to go to kindergarten. Ben is in ALL DAY Kindergarten!!! WOO HOO!!!! I couldn't be happier and neither could he. He had some speech problems during the summer. He wouldn't studder but he had Dysfluency which means he would stammer on the beginning of a sentence. Like he would say, I, I, I, I and then start or Um,Um,Um,Um. It was getting really frustrating but since school has started he has made progress in leaps and bounds and hardly ever does it now. The speech therapist said that they are just going to watch him now and let him go on as normal. I am so happy and he is happy and not bored all of the time. I lOVE SCHOOL!

Summer Family Reunions

This summer we had both the Beckstrand and Shelton reunions. The Beckstrand reunion was held in Pine Valley (one of my favorite places). We went camping (one of my favorite things to do). Because Sophie and I had Annie on Monday and Wednesday we weren't able to sleep over the first day, so Joel had the kids by himself. He did such a great job and no one got hurt. We went to the reservoir, went fishing, played volleyball and horseshoes, dutch ovened and played with cousins. Ben ended up catching 5 fish. It was so much fun.

Then we had the Shelton reunion in California. Sophie and I couldn't go because of the play so Joel took Shayne and the three boys by himself. I was a little worried but knew that Shayne would fill in for whatever Joel didn't know how to do. They spent the first 3 days camping and surfing and having a ball! They got reacquainted with the Lucero cousins that they hadn't seen for a couple years and had so much fun. Then they went to Legoland the next day and SeaWorld the next. Joel took about 200 pictures. Josh said the funnest part was seeing the red Ferrari that pulled up next to them at a stop light. Joel did an AMAZING job this summer with the kids. They made memories that will last forever!

HSM2 & ANNIE Update

HSM2 is over. What a summer! I don't think it could have gotten any busier. High School Musical 2 was so much fun. We had the best kids that we've ever had as far as no getting into trouble. This is the first year no one went to the ER. And I didn't have to go to court with anyone. So, I'd say it was very successful! Annie is still going. But now it is only every Friday and every other Wednesday. So, it's not as busy. Sophie is loving it. We have 6 performances left. It will be sad for the girls when we are done because some of them live in Vegas and who knows when they'll see each other again. The parents have all been great and so have the girls which makes my job easy. Here are some pictures: